USB Boot on Compaq F500 - No wireless LAN.

Well, I am not well versed in DSL or any other Linux platform on the desktop. I am a UNIX guy on the server side. Together with understanding the unix cryptographic command set, my knowledge base do not go hand in hand with the desktop linux unfortunately.

My fresh out of warranty laptop, a compaq F500 croaked while running the Redmond's finest OS, Vista Home premium, Subsequent attempts to install windows from vista and XP fail with the complaint that the system does not have a fixed drive. This makes me believe the disk controller on the mo-bo bit the dust. Considering the service prices exceeding cost of a better and new laptop, this device, is practically a doorstop.

Enter DSL from USB stick. I have followed the instructions on the DSL's website and was able to boot to DSL desktop. But when I went into my network settings to mark my wireless LAN (some sort of broadcomm internal WLAN module) as my primary network interface and setup the SSID and what not, I was not able to see the WLAN adapter listed. Only the wired connection was available.

My question is, how can I make the WLAN available and usable. If I need to download a DSL driver, where would I find this and where does it need to go (directory level wise) on the USB stick ? Thanks for all help in advance.

Posted by u2musicmike on Sep. 11 2009,22:22

I think for Broadcomm you have to use ndiswrapper. This uses the windows drivers. Save the inf and sys files in your home directory or /opt (some make them into a tgz file and put them in mydsl). Search the forum for ndiswrapper.